Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak: Can the Subaltern Speak?

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak’s essay “Can the Subaltern Speak?” is
one of the key theoretical texts in the field of postcolonial
studies, by one of its most famous figures. It was first published
in the journal Wedge in 1985, as “Can the Subaltern Speak?:
Speculations on Widow Sacrifice”; reprinted in 1988 as “Can the
Subaltern Speak?” in Cary Nelson and Larry Grossberg’s edited
collection, Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture; and
revised by Spivak as part of her “History” chapter in A Critique
of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing
Present, published in 1999. It has also appeared in essay
collections of and on Spivak’s work, …

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19945Can the Subaltern Speak?3Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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